Spark-arrester.



R. M. CROSBY.

SPARK ARRESTER,

APPLIGATION FILED AUG.3,1911.

Patented Aug. 25, 1914.

THE NORRIS PETERS CO. PHOTO-LITHQ, WASHINGTON, D C.

'UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RICHARD M. CROSBY, 0F TACOMA, WASHINGTON.

SPARK-ARRESTER.

Specification of letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 25, 191 1.

Application filed August 3, 1911. Serial No. 642,115.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, RICHARD M. CRosBY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Tacoma, in the county of Pierce and State of Washington, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Spark-Arresters, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to spark arresters for locomotives or the like.

' Heretofore it has been customary to place awire netting in the smoke box of the locomotive to prevent the passage of largecinders or sparks. The netting is more or less unsatisfactory, for various reasons, one of which is that the smaller particles may pass through the netting without retardation, and as soon as they reach the outer air the supply of oxygen gives them new life and they burn more fiercely. The netting is also defective for the reason that it becomes stopped up, causing the cinders, soot, and oil from the exhaust nozzleto accumulate above it. These materials take fire and are thrown off at intervals, especially when the engine is exerting its maxlmum energy.

The object of my. invention is to do away with the netting entirely and to substitute therefor a device which will deflect the sparks and hot solid bodies from a direct path into the outer air. While thus deflecting the solid bodies I do not interfere with the free passage of the hot gases and products of combustion. For this purpose I provide defleeting plates or equivalent devices which cause the particles to be thrown from one toanother. The inertia of the particles prevents their making short turns and entering the apertures provided for the passage of the gases. The larger particles more particularly will be caused to continue in a rotary direction in the front portion of the smoke box until ground into small particles and extinguished, before they enter the ap ertures provided for the hot gases and pass out into the outer air.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent in the following specification when taken in connection with the drawings, and the novel elements and combinations thereof will be set forth in the claims.

In the drawings-Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of the smoke box of a locomotive, showing my invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the a portion of the deflecting plates; Fig. 4k is a detail of a modification in the deflecting plates; and Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the general arrangement of the parts of a locomotive which are related to my invention.

I accomplish the object of my invention by means of a series of deflecting plates 18 placed in an inclined position in the front portion of the smoke box in about the same general position as is commonly occupied by the netting. The smoke box of the 1000 motive is indicated by the reference numoral 10, and consists of shell plates 11 and the head or cover 12. The front boiler head 13 serves as the rear wall of the smoke box. The products of combustion enter the smoke box through the flues 14:, which extendufrom the fire box or combustion chamber 14 to said smoke box.

In the drawings I have illustrated the usual diaphragm or deflecting plate 15, which is preferably given a downwardly and forwardly inclined position in the rear portion of the smoke box directly in front of the boiler head 13. The plate 16 serves as an extension to the said diaphragm and is placedin a horizontal position and attached to the exhaust nozzle tip 17. This plate is preferably given a downward bend at its front end, as shown at 24-. In the portion 2 1 of said plate an adjustable diaphragm plate or diaphragm damper maybe provided for regulating or restricting the passage for the gases and sparks below said diaphragm. This adjustable diaphragm plate or damper I have not shown in the drawings, as it is not a part of my present invention.

The deflecting plates 18 are preferably composed of narrow strips of metal extending transversely of the smoke box with a narrow opening or space 18 between them. These plates are preferably given adownwardly projecting bend or curved edge 19 at their rear and lower edges. Said plates are placed in an inclined position, with the lower edge 19 of one plate located substantially in a vertical direction above the upper edge 20 of the next plate below. The whole series of plates is given an inclined position, and it will be clear that solid bodies which strike the plates will be thrown from one to another and-that their inertia will prevent them turning a sharp corner around edges same; Fig. 8 is a sectional view in detail of 20 and entering the spaces 18. The plates are supported by inclined bars '21, attached at their upper ends to an angle bar 23 and at their lower ends to another angle bar 23. These angle bars extend transversely of the smoke box, the upper one being suitably attached to the upper wall 10 of the smoke box and the lower one to the lower edge of the downwardly turned portion '24 of the diaphragm plate 16. There are preferably two of the supporting bars 21. i

'The lateral extremities of the plates 18 may be attached to curved angle bars 22, which are secured to the walls of the smoke box. It will be seen that each of thedefleeting plates is supported at four pointsand'that they are all held in their desired relative positions, with the spaces 18 between them, by the fiat bars 21 and angle bars 22.

The individual deflector plates are held in position on the supporting bars by bolts 25 which pass through spacing sleeves 26. One end of said bolt passes through a plate 18, near its upper edge 20, while the upper end of the bolt passes through a small arm or narrow holding strip 27, which is riveted to the body of the deflector plate, as shown at 28. It will be seen that the narrow strips 27 do not interfere materially with the passage of the gases through the opening 18*. The general direction of the flow of the gases is shown by the arrows. The gases will make sharp turns in passingthrough the openings, but the solid bodies will be carried by their inertia beyond the openings and against the successive deflecting plates.

The general direction of the solid bodies or cinders is shown by the arrows, and the cinders will continue in motion after passing the uppermost deflecting plate until they strike the front cover 12 of the smoke box, from whence they will naturally fall downwardly.' At the bottom of the smoke box their tendency will be rearward, where they will meet the forward and upward current of gases from the flues 14:. It will be seen that there is I a rotary movement of the cinders and that this movement has a tendency to grind them into smaller particles. The most important of all, however, is the tendency of the apparatus to greatly delay the passage of the cinders into the outside air. This delay allows them to become extinguished, largely for the reason that there is little or no oxygen in the smoke box to support combustion. The hot gases and products of combustion are composed largely of carbon dioxid, which will not support combustion.

It will be seen that the usual arrangeexisting at this point has the effect of keeping the cinders in a state of constant circulation. They have no chance to accumulate in the lower portion of the smoke box, and the apparatus is therefore self-cleaning. This state of constant circulation causes the cinders to be ground finer and finer until they are sufliciently small to be carried by the hot gases through the openings between the deflector plates. It will be seen that the more severely the fire is blasted, the more sharply or efiectively the solid particles are deflected from one plate to another, and that the apparatus is therefore self-regulating. In practice I have found that this apparatus is very much superior to the netting now commonly used, or to any of the spark arresters with which I am familiar.

Another feature in connection with the operation of the device is that the coarser cinders which jump the openings have a tendency to carry the finer particles with them, and thereby still further delay the escape of said finer particles. A small fraction of a second of delay in the smoke box has an important effect in extinguishing the sparks before they enter the outside air and reach fresh supplies of oxygen.

In Fig. 4 I have shown a modified form of deflecting plates. These plates are given a curved or cylindrical form, as shown at 29 and 80; They may-be attachedv to the supporting bars 31, which may be placed between two series of said'deflectors, the deflectors being given a staggered. relation.

Many other modifications in the plates may be made.

My invention is clearly applicable in other connections, as, for instance, in steamships, and, in many cases, in stationary steam plants. Other uses not mentioned here will doubtless bem'et with.

While I have described my invention with more or lessminuteness and asbeing embodied 1n certain precise forms, it will be understood that I do not desire to be 1imited thereto unduly, or any more than is pointed out in the claims. On the contrary,

I contemplate ch. nges in form, construction, :and arrangement, the omisslon of parts, and the substitution 'of equivalents, as circumstances may suggest or necessity render ex- 'pedient.

I claim l. I 1. In a locomotive boiler or the like, a

channel through which the productsof comthe lower portion of the next adjacent plate whereby apertures are formed: through which the gases of combustion pass in a direction opposite to that in which they enter said channel.

2. In a locomotive boiler or the like, a channel through which the products of combustion pass away from said boiler, a screening partition made up of a series of deflecting plates extending across said channel, said plates lying in substantially parallel planes which are inclined to the plane of the series, the plane of the series being inclined toward one wall of said channel, one edge of each plate being bent toward the next adjacent plate, and spaced outwardly therefrom such that the projections of all of said plates on the plane of the series substantially covers said plane within the limits of said screening partition, and means to space the upper portion of each plate from the lower portion of the next adjacent plate.

3. In a locomotive boiler or the like, a channel through which the products of combustion pass away from said boiler, a series of deflecting plates extending entirely across said channel, said plates being inclincd to the plane of the series and each having one edge bent toward the adjacent plate, and supporting bars arranged transversely of said plates, said series being inclined toward one wall of the channel.

4. In a locomotive boiler or the like, a smoke box through which the products of combustion pass away from said boiler, a series of deflecting plates sloping upwardly and forwardly across said smoke-box toward the front wall thereof, and adapted to throw solid bodies in said products toward and against said front wall, said plates being inclined to the plane of the series and each having one edge bent toward the adjacent plate, supporting bars arranged transversely of said plates, means for spacing said plates apart,and means to direct the products of combustion toward a position beneath said deflecting plates.

5. In a locomotive boiler orthe like, a smoke box through which the products of combustion pass away from said boiler, a

series of deflecting plates sloping upwardly and forwardly across said smoke-box toward the front wall thereof, and adapted to I throw solid bodies in said products toward and against said front wall, said plates being inclined to the plane of the series and each having one edge bent toward the adjacent plate, supporting bars arranged transversely of said plates, means for spacing said plates apart, means for holding said plates in said spaced relation on said supporting bars, and means to direct the products of combustion toward a position beneath said deflecting plates.

6. In a locomotive boiler or the like, a smoke box, a deflecting wall for throwing the current of gases adjacent the bottom of said box, and a series of spaced deflecting plates extending from the lower edge of said wall to the top of said box, and sloping forwardly toward the front wall of said box, and adapted to throw solid bodies in said current of gases against said wall.

7. In a device of the character described,

a smoke box, and a series of deflecting plates, said series being angularly disposed in relation to a wall of the smoke box and adapted to deflect solid bodies against said wall, said plates being spaced to permit a flow of gases between them in a reversed direction to their flow before entering said spaces, and means to prevent the gases in said smoke box from taking any other path of exit.

8. In a locomotive boiler or the like, a smoke box, flues entering the same, a deflecting wall inclining downwardly and forwardly in front of the flues within the smoke-box, a series of spaced deflecting:

plates extending downwardly and rearwardly within the smoke-box, and a horn zontal wall extending across from the lower edge of the said deflecting wall to the lower part of the series of deflecting plates, said series of deflecting plates lapping past one another in succession so as to form spaces between them directed toward the lower edge of the said first mentioned deflecting wall.

In testimony whereof I have subscribed my name.

RICHARD M. CROSBY. lVitnesses Bnocn JENNINGS, F. M. HARSHBERGER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained. for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of IE'atents, Washington, I). 0. 

